Dell unfairly targeted over-40’s in recent layoffs and discriminates against women according to a class action lawsuit filed against them this week by four former employees.

Those employees were HR executives who have filed a US$500 million class action lawsuit against Dell in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. They allege that Dell operates an ‘old boys network’ in which women are denied pay and promotion into the upper echelons of the company. They are seeking damages on behalf of female and older staff who they allege were unfairly targeted during redundancies made in 2007 and 2008.

Steven L Wittels, Class Counsel in the case, said in a statement:While Dell publicly proclaims a commitment to diversity as ‘an essential element of our corporate values,’ the reality fails to live up to the rhetoric [...] At Dell, it is an understatement to say that women face a glass ceiling; Dell’s glass ceiling is made of concrete.

As senior members of the HR division, the women presumably had a deep insight into the workings of the company and the attitudes of senior board members; and claim to have email evidence to support their assertion that Dell systematically favoured male staff in remuneration and promotion prospects. Since the layoffs, the lawsuit alleges, the upper management at Dell is approximately 80% male.